Whether you love him or hate him, or feel indifferent to the Dublin born chairman of Peterborough United altogether, you've got to respect Darragh MacAnthony's willingness to be totally up front and honest about pretty much everything, even when it gets him into a spot of bother.
He's publicly criticised his own players as well as other chairmen on twitter and in the media, but he regrets nothing, as he made perfectly clear to Sky Sports' Max Rushden on The Fantasy Football Show this week.
MacAnthony had a startling reason for why he bought a football club in the first place..
Why? I was 29.
You do daft things in your 20's, right?
Yes Darragh, but usually that involves putting a traffic cone on your head on a night out or getting an ill-advised tattoo on a lads holiday in Magaluf, rather than purchasing a football club.
Nevertheless he made the decision to become a chairman of a football club, and he has enjoyed success ever since, particularly in the business of buying young, talened players and selling them on to bigger clubs.4
We recently heard of how Everton scouts have been keeping an eye on Dubliner Chris Forrester along with a few others in recent times, and MacAnthony explained not only how a deal comes about from when a player is scouted through to when a contract is signed, but also how clauses in those contracts can keep the club stable over time:
That is extremely interesting.
You won't hear many chairmen openly disclose how a meeting with an international manager gave them the knowledge to put an international clause cap into a contract, so it's quite cool to get an insight into how these negotiations take place.
